Reed dance: traditional ceremony at the Umhlanga festival at Ludzidzini Royal Village in Lobamba

Ihsaan Haffejee · Anadolu · Getty

Billboards proclaiming ‘Fifty years of peace, stability and progress’ for this year’s anniversary of Swaziland’s independence lined the deserted highway across the sugar-belt plains between the airport and the capital, Mbabane, 70km away. The white elephant airport cost $150m and has just three flights a day to and from neighbouring South Africa; occasionally King Mswati III takes off in the Airbus A340-300 he bought from Taiwan’s China Airlines for $13m.

‘The king has turned the country into his personal fiefdom,’ said opposition leader Mario Masuku of the People’s United Democratic Movement (Pudemo), which, like all political parties, has been banned since 1973. ‘Swaziland’s economy only benefits his family and entourage, and a small circle of entrepreneurs and wheeler-dealers who do business with him.’ In this circle are the king’s 13 wives, 23 children, and around 200 other relatives. There’s also a comprador middle class acting as intermediaries in foreign trade; South African investors paying wages a third of those at home; and a small group of white business leaders, heirs of the British colonists.

Since 1986 Mswati III has ruled over 1.3 million subjects as absolute monarch of his landlocked state, a little smaller than Wales, between South Africa and Mozambique. He is one of five African leaders who have been in power for over 30 years. Muzi Mhlanga, deputy general secretary of the Trade Union Congress of Swaziland (Tucoswa), which was not authorised until 2015, said: ‘Despite criticism from Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and many ANC activists, Mswati III seems to slip under the radar.’

The king has turned the country into his personal fiefdom
Mario Masuku

Tucoswa, which has close links with Pudemo, wants democracy. The police force, known for its corruption and violence, gets preferential treatment from the state, and 5% of the national budget, equivalent to spending on the military. The (...)